First Results from the Taiwan Axion Search Experiment with Haloscope at 19.6 $\mu$eV

Abstract

This Letter reports on the first results from the Taiwan Axion Search Experiment with Haloscope, a search for axions using a microwave cavity at frequencies between 4.70750 and 4.79815 GHz. Apart from the non-axion signals, no candidates with a significance more than 3.355 were found. The experiment excludes models with the axion-two-photon coupling $\left|g_{a\gamma\gamma}\right|\gtrsim 8.2\times 10^{-14}$ GeV$^{-1}$, a factor of eleven above the benchmark KSVZ model, reaching a sensitivity three orders of magnitude better than any existing limits in the mass range 19.4687 < $m_a$ < 19.8436 $\mu$eV. It is also the first time that a haloscope-type experiment places constraints on $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$ in this mass region.